Alain Prost To Be Honored At 2012 Goodwood Festival Of Speed

To mark its second year as the official timekeeper of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, luxury watch manufacturer TAG Heuer is staging a unique and remarkable photographic exhibition at the event dedicated to the legendary French racing driver, Alain Prost.

He may have his detractors but there’s no denying that Prost is one of the most accomplished race car drivers of all time and remains a motorsports figurehead even after all these years.

However, we’re sure TAG Heuer will be focusing on the French driver’s early days in Formula 1 driving for the TAG-sponsored McLaren team--with which he secured three of his four World Championship victories. Prost has a total of 51 grand prix wins under his belt, which is second only to Michael Schumacher.

Last year he returned to the fold of TAG Heuer ambassadors and one of his first, major roles has been to assist in curating the brand's inaugural Festival of Speed photographic exhibition, which tracks every milestone of Prost's path from schoolboy kart racer to his present efforts. The exhibition will feature more than 100 images, many of them never before seen by the public.

In tandem with the Prost photographic exhibition, TAG Heuer will also use the Festival of Speed to launch the 80th birthday celebrations of another legendary figure in its history--Jack Heuer. The great-grandson of Heuer founder Edouard, Jack was the man responsible for forming the brand's original Formula 1 alliance in 1969, when he made Jo Siffert the first driver to partner with a watch company.

Now TAG Heuer's chairman, Jack Heuer was deeply involved in motor sport during the 1960s and '70s, and became personal friends with many of the most renowned drivers of the time, among them Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni, Emerson Fittipaldi and Niki Lauda.

To celebrate its chairman’s 80th birthday, TAG Heuer will launch at the Goodwood Festival of Speed launch a new special edition watch based on the iconic Carrera chronograph. Only 3,000 examples are destined for production.